We recently attended the Philly Weekly Taste of Philly 2013 held at the Crystal Tea Room on Wednesday, November 13. It was a spectacular culinary event showcasing an impressive cross section of Philadelphia restaurants as well as mostly local breweries who were prominently setup in the middle of the room, quaintly dubbed “The Beer Garden.”

The event was well attended; hundreds of foodies seeking the latest sensational flavors of Philly’s hottest restaurants. Food and beer lovers stood in long food lines and mingled as they noshed on the various food offerings—snacks, hors d’oeuvres, entrees, desserts—and sampled alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages alike. There was live entertainment for our pleasure, too; a DJ, live band and even a photo booth compliments of Photobot 3000.

So excited to make this for ourselves at home, we embarked on procuring all of the ingredients and got to work on this tonight.

Here’s our version simmering away in a dutch oven sans the cilantro and garnish. We decided to add about 1 lb. of ground beef which the recipe doesn’t call for. Feel free to add your preferred meat or make it vegetarian style.

The finished product: a close facsimile of what we had at Wednesday’s event. Very tasty and we recommend trying this recipe at home with your own modifications.

Yum!

Kudos to Philly Weekly, the restaurants, the breweries, and all of the sponsors for an incredible food-and-drink lovers event. Special thanks to Muir Glen Organic for supplying the tickets to attend so we could review it. Looking forward to next year!